


Chasing Grace

by Josh89



Series: NYC Grace [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Assassins & Hitmen, Case Fic, Character Death, Clues, Crime Fighting, Crime Scenes, Crimes & Criminals, Don't Have to Know Canon, Don't copy to another site, Evidence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 03:49:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20988353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh89/pseuds/Josh89
Summary: Tobias gets called to a very early morning crime scene, and something strange is definitely going on with Ruby.





	Chasing Grace

"Hand it over".  
The woman paled as the man in black drew closer, and hugged the parcel in her arms closer to her chest. Though she was clearly afraid of him, her tone was strong, defiant, as she responded. "No".  
The man laughed humourlessly, and drew a small, stiletto-like, blade from the inside pocket of his jacket. "You seem to think you have a choice. Hand it over. Or I will kill you".  
His eyes gleamed dangerously in his pale face, and the woman looked frantically around her for any avenues of escape that the alley might offer her. The man was coming towards her from the street, forcing her to move backwards, further into the alleyway, and her retreat would soon be cut off by the chain-link fence that stretched across the other side of the alley and was too sheer to climb. "Shit!"  
"You have no hope of escaping, Miss Reynolds. Hand over the fucking package. Now!" the man growled.  
"You'll never take it!" she cried, pressing the package even closer to her chest, taking another defiant step backwards.  
"Miss Reynolds... You're making a mistake trying to fight this. All I want is the package. And I always get what I want".  
"You'll have to kill me first!"  
Putting on one last burst of speed, she ran towards the man, trying to catch him off guard and buy her maybe a few moments to escape from this nightmare. Unfortunately for her, the man had obviously seen this coming, as he grabbed her and slammed her into the alley wall back-first. It was only a matter of seconds before she felt the knife pierce her chest, and as her attacker withdrew the blade and tore the package from her grasp, her dying eyes focusing on his lips as he spoke one last time. "You were warned".  
As he walked casually away from the mortally wounded young woman, she fell unmoving to the ground to lay face-down in a pool of her own blood. As the dark crimson liquid crept slowly from the slender hole in her chest to pool on the ground beneath her, she whispered a name, loosing it into the air on her final breath. "Jason..."  
~Tobias Grace~  
\-----One hour later-----  
Tobias bit back a curse and struggled to sit up as his iPhone chimed quietly on his bedside table, signalling that someone was trying to call him. Snatching it, he glanced at the screen, muttering something under his breath as he hit the 'answer' button. "Miranda, what do you want? It's not even two in the morning yet, why the hell are you calling me so early?"  
"There's a body".  
Tobias fought to stop the stream of French curses that immediately leaped unbidden to his lips. "And it couldn't have waited another couple of hours?”  
"Ruby and Aaron are already on their way. Aaron said he’d text you the address".  
Tobias sighed, swinging his legs over the side of his bed and getting reluctantly to his feet. "Fine, I'm up. Just give me time to have a shower and grab a coffee, and I'll meet you there in roughly 45 minutes".  
"Fine. But don't you dare keep me waiting, Tobias Carter Grace!"  
And with that, the medical examiner hung up. Tobias sighed in exasperation and tossed his phone onto the bed before heading for the bathroom. This was going to be one hell of a long day…  
\-----45 minutes later-----  
Tobias stepped out of his car and headed for the yellow tape that marked the crime scene, muttering a less-than-enthusiastic response to the greeting given to him by the uniformed officer who lifted it just high enough for him to duck under. “What have you got for us, Mira?” he queried, pulling a pair of white latex gloves from his jacket pocket and slipping them on as he strode quickly over to where the blonde-haired woman was crouched over a body, with Ruby and Aaron standing close by.  
“Female, mid to late twenties. No ID yet, but facial recognition is bound to get us something. Bruising around the ribs and shoulders indicate that she was probably assaulted, and cause of death is most likely to be the stab wound to the chest. From the blood pool I’d say she was killed here, and time of death I’m thinking was slightly over one hour and 45 minutes ago”.  
Really, nobody should be as enthusiastic as Miranda Reese is right now given how little sleep I happen to know that she has had. In fact, I would be surprised if she had even left the morgue last night at all Tobias thought lightly.  
“Were there any visible signs of sexual assault?” Aaron queried.  
Tobias shot him a grateful look, to which he received a slight nod in return. The two knew each other well enough that they could tell when their partner wasn’t feeling the best, or the most alert, and often covered for each other in exactly the same way that Aaron had just done for him. Miranda shook her head. “None, but I’ll be able to get a closer look at her, and tell you one way or the other for sure, once I get her back to the lab”.  
“Much appreciated, as ever”.  
“Who found the body?” Ruby queried.  
It was the first time she had spoken since Tobias had arrived at the scene, and Tobias could have sworn that there was something different about her. He just couldn’t put his finger on what that might have been. Miranda turned, gesturing to near the entrance to the alleyway, where a black-haired man in a charcoal-grey suit stood face to face with a uniformed officer. “He did. That’s Robert Falcon, who owns the buildings on either side”.  
“I’ll talk to him”.  
That in itself is weird. As a general rule, Ruby never, and I actually do mean never, offers to talk to witnesses. That’s usually something that Aaron or myself do. Tobias mused.  
As soon as Ruby was out of earshot, he turned to his partner and best friend. “Hey, Aaron?”  
His partner glanced up. “Yeah?”  
“Something seem kind of different about Ruby to you?”  
Aaron considered the question briefly, and then gave a slight nod. “Now that you mention it, she hasn’t flirted with you once yet today. And she has been oddly focused on actually doing her job for once. Yeah, I’m definitely thinking something strange is going on”.  
\-----Roughly one hour later, back at the Precinct-----  
“I hate this case!”  
“Yeah, so do I, my friend”.  
Tobias turned from where he stood in front of the white board that had been dragged into the room to face his partner. Aaron was standing just inside the bullpen, with a brown manila folder in his hands. “Are those the lab results on our vic?” he queried.  
“They identified her. Jennifer Reynolds, works as a nurse at New York Presbyterian”.  
“Alright, I suppose that’s something. I have to talk to the Captain about something, then I have a call to make to a friend”.


End file.
